The Truth Behind Sameness
by silverglow14
Summary: My version of Chapter 24 of The Giver. I wrote this for a school project and it puts a sort of twist on Sameness. It might be a little different than what you'd normally expect.


**This is what I wrote for a project in my Language Arts class. It's not the best, but I thought I'd put it up here since I won't ever use it again. It sort of puts a twist on Sameness.**

Chapter 24

Jonas awoke in a strange room. His head ached as he slowly sat up in the soft bed. Dazed, Jonas shook his head, trying to recall the events of the day before. Last he remembered, he and Gabe were traveling down a hill on a sled at breakneck speed. Gabe! Jonas had completely forgotten about him. Confused, Jonas's eyes swept around the room, searching for a clue that would tell him where Gabe was.

The walls were painted a light blue, and instead of the regular blankness of wall he was accompanied to, they were plastered with what appeared to be greeting cards. He examined one on the wall. "We are sorry for your loss," it read. Jonas observed the rest of the room. Nothing but a bed, a dresser, and several baby toys which lay scattered on the floor. He had certainly never been here before, yet the room seemed oddly familiar.

But still no Gabe. Panicking, Jonas raced out of the room and dashed through the hallway, skidding to a halt at the threshold. He entered what he recognized to be a kitchen, a word he had learned from The Giver. But that wasn't all. Sitting there at the circular wooden table were Mother, Father, and Lily. Jonas couldn't believe his eyes.

"Mother? Father? Lily?" Jonas croaked. He was shaking all over. He was in a different town! How could they possibly be here? An awful thought occurred to him. Could his whole journey just have been a dream? But no, that was impossible. His ripped clothes and dirty face were no dream. This was real.

"Jonas!" cried Mother. She swooped down and hugged him tightly. "You're awake!" From over her shoulder Jonas could see his father stand up awkwardly while Lily trailed nervously behind him.

"You look awful, absolutely awful, I'll have to get you all cleaned up, new clothes oh yes and definitely a bath. My word when I heard you were unconscious at the bottom of that hill with that boy, oh I almost lost it! But you're safe now Jonas, and—" Mother paused her rant at the look on Father's face.

"How are you feeling…son?" asked his father cautiously, as if the word was foreign to his tongue.

"I think I'm hallucinating," choked Jonas, barely able to breathe through the large lump in his throat. "I left you all back at the community when I escaped…but how did you…?"

Mother glanced at Jonas, concerned. "What do you mean Jonas? We haven't seen you since you were stolen from us twelve years ago!"

"Stolen?" Jonas's eyes widened. "But I've lived with you for all of my life!"

"Calm down honey, he is probably just delirious," Father reassured Mother. He turned to Jonas. "I'm not sure if you remember, but you were taken from us when you were very little. We haven't seen you since. The only way we knew it was you who had arrived yesterday was thanks to the pictures the searchers took of you a few years back."

"It was awful," Mother sniffed. "Right in the dead of night, they climbed in the windows and took you. We never saw you again. Why, if it weren't for those search planes we would have never been reunited with you." She dabbed at her watering eyes with a white handkerchief.

"Wait a minute…search planes? That plane that flew over the community, the people were searching for me? Why? What did I do?"

Mother began to open her mouth, but Father silenced her by placing a hand on her shoulder. "Let me take care of this. Jonas, over the past few years for as long as we can remember, blue eyed children have been stolen from our town and the neighboring cities. Just two years ago a little boy named Gabriel was taken from his parents in the middle of the night. The search planes were sent out to find him."

"They way you say it," Jonas said slowly, "sounds as if this place isn't my old community. But if that's true, then how are you, my family who I distinctly remember leaving behind, how are you living here?"

His parents and Lily stared at Jonas uneasily. He could tell that they had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe he could convince them that lack of sleep was eating away at his sanity. Even so, a change of subject would be best.

"Speaking of Gabe, where is he?" Jonas stretched his neck out anxiously as he searched the room for any sign of curly blonde hair.

"The little boy?" Lily piped up. "He went home to his parents, and you came here to us."

"Oh, right. He was stolen from here too, so he has a family now…." Jonas knew that there was something he was missing, a key item of importance that could link all of these new discoveries together in a way that made sense. A sudden idea struck him.

"May I speak with your community's Chief Elder? They might be able to clear some of this up." Maybe he or she could explain to Jonas what exactly was going on, and why this place reminded him so much of his community.

Lily giggled. "You're funny Jonas. I like you already. What's a Chef Older?"

"Chief Elder," Father corrected her. "And I don't know what it is either." His eyes looked up inquiringly at Jonas.

"You know, the community leader!"

Mother glanced from her son to her husband. "Our mayor? Is he referring to her?"

Jonas had never heard the strange term before. "Mayeyer? Is that what you call your community leader? Very well then, may I speak with her?"

"Sure," Lily said in a sing-song voice as she twirled her hair around her finger and grinned at Jonas. "You can find her in the big building in the center of town. It's real shiny, you can't miss it."

"Thanks," said Jonas, and he hastened out the door and onto the street, leaving his worried parents to exchange glances with each other.

* * *

Strolling down along the road, Jonas just couldn't help but have a feeling of déjà vu. He was in his old community, yet he wasn't. He was starting to think that maybe he was delirious. The town was larger than his community, yet some of the townspeople were strikingly familiar, and he could pick out a few faces that he remembered from his community. Here and there he recognized a building, but they weren't identical to the ones that he knew from his childhood. Like when he passed the lot that had once been occupied by the Food Distribution Center, a big building with a large sign that read MARKET BASKET had taken its place.

Jonas made his way up the street towards the large marble building located at the center of town. The passerby he had spoken to had told him that it was called Town Hall. The magnificent building was topped with a roof of gold supported by ivory white pillars. It had probably seen many years go by, for the stair railing was old and rickety and the building needed to be repainted a cleaner, fresher white than the chipped gray it was currently. Oddly though, the roof gleamed with freshly applied polish. Jonas stared in both distaste at the bad upkeep and admiration for the large building. Sighing, he began his ascent towards the door.

Upon entering, Jonas was greeted by a woman sitting behind a large counter. A gold nameplate defined her as the secretary. She looked up at him and smiled politely.

"May I help you sir?" Shocked, Jonas realized that this was the same woman who had been the Attendant in the annex.

"Uhh, I think so," Jonas stammered. "Could you tell me where I can find the Ch—I mean, the mayor?"

The woman smiled at him reassuringly. "Sure deary, just walk down that hall and take the first left." She gestured towards the hallway behind her. "Her office is the third door on the right, mmkay?"

"Yes, thank you." Jonas walked past her desk and down the hall. He followed her instructions, and sure enough when he reached the third door on the right he noticed that this door, unlike the others, had been given a large steel door knocker. Hesitantly, Jonas reached out a trembling hand and knocked once, twice, three times before he heard a response.

"Enter," spoke a confident voice. Jonas opened the door to reveal a cozy little office. Picture frames of official looking documents and degrees lined the walls. The back wall was completely constructed of shelves that held piles of books. The magnificent oak desk bore a pot of decorative flowers that Jonas recognized as daisies. They sat atop a nice doily next to a stack of signed papers. The woman sitting behind the desk, however, was Jonas's main focus of concentration. She was none other than the Chief Elder from his community.

Jonas gasped in surprise. "You…you're the mayor?" he implored. The woman gave a quick nod. "But you, you are the Chief Elder!" he accused.

"Me? No, I'm the mayor of this town. I do, however, know what is causing you grief. You have mistaken me for a mere shadow, a duplicate."

"A what?" Jonas had never been so confused in his life. First his parents, now this! It was hard to comprehend all at once.

The woman sighed. "Sit down. I might as well try to explain this to you. I assume you are Jonas, yes? The boy who came on the sled?" Jonas nodded. "And you want answers. Well, so be it. Let's see…." The mayor closed her eyes deep in thought.

"You have probably noticed by now that this town is much like your, what is it they call them? Ah yes, community. No, you are not hallucinating, and no, this is not a dream. You see, that community of yours is, well—a copy."

"A…copy?"

"Yes. A duplicate. A clone. Your community is based off of our town."

"But…" Jonas shook his head. It didn't make sense. "I thought that my community was real!"

"Oh it was and is very real indeed. You were chosen to become a Receiver, yes? I wonder, have they educated you on the topic of Sameness?"

Jonas was glad he finally had a grip of understanding on the conversation. "Yes, The Giver told me all about Sameness. We didn't have color or feeling or anything unique. It was all just bland and boring." Jonas got a faraway look in his eyes as his thoughts fell on his old home.

The mayor fiddled with the pencils on her desk, making sure each one was lined up properly. "That is correct. You see, years and years ago there was a man named Dedrick. He dreamed of a world of perfection, a world without poverty or war. He considered Sameness. Using the money he had earned from previous inventions, he underwent extensive research on the idea." The mayor paused. "No one knew how successful his research had been until he presented the United Nations, a council of leaders, with his system of Sameness. A system that would surely create a wonderful place to live."

Jonas knit his eyebrows together and scratched his head, frowning. "So this man—Dedrick—he invented Sameness?"

"He researched it," The mayor corrected. "The idea had already existed but no one, save for him, had ever dared to explore it very much."

Jonas stared at the floor, thinking hard. "So he presented his idea to the council. They must've liked it or else my community would've never existed."

"Indeed, some of the people took a keen interest in his idea, but many of them were wary of the enormous changes they would have to make. So they decided to experiment. They granted him permission to set up two communities, but only two, in a land area far enough away from the populated cities and towns. His idea," continued the mayor, scowling, "was that he would use a device he had invented to physically create a copy of another town. Then he could make the changes necessary to the people and the structure of the town to include Sameness."

Jonas was still confused. "My parents tell me I'm from here and that I was stolen and brought to the community. Why steal me when they could just make a copy of me?"

The mayor gave him a wry smile. "That there was the one flaw in his plan. He needed a person capable of withholding all of the memories of life before Sameness. His copies, however, were incapable of feeling or seeing color or any of the properties needed for the job, so he had to steal real children to take on the job. He was particularly fond of blue eyed babies."

"But that's horrible!" Jonas exclaimed. "How could the council let him do that?"

"Oh, they didn't. He didn't keep his word and only make two communities, oh no, he made dozens. He loved the power, the ability to control multiple little societies. By the time the United Nations figured out what was going on, it was too late. "

* * *

The mayor's last words still sent chills up Jonas's spine back on the streets. He couldn't believe it. The world he had lived in for so long, a fake? Just a copy? But Gabe wasn't a copy, and neither was The Giver. Jonas yearned to contact him, but knew he mustn't. Any communication with him was dangerous given the current circumstances there. Besides, The Giver was better off there. He had told Jonas he would return to Rosemary soon.

Jonas stood on the edge of the sidewalk, hesitating before moving on. He made his decision and, with sure footing, set off for Gabe's house. He might as well pay his escape partner a visit. Jonas squinted up at the bright sun, the aquamarine sky, and the fluffy cotton clouds. The town was filled with such promise of a new life.

_We made it Gabe. I told you we would, and we did. We found it._


End file.
